And that’s exactly what a crowd of about 75 people did Monday
evening in an event put on by the
Asia Society in New York City, introducing Hamid’s new book.

The author of Moth Smoke and international bestseller The
Reluctant Fundamentalist joined fellow author Suketu Mehta for a conversation
on his writing style, identity in fiction and his part in the buzzing Pakistani
literary scene.

Getting Rich is Hamid’s “speedy third novel” in the works
for the last six years (in comparison to the seven years each spent on his
previous two). The novel carries on the second-person narrative Hamid used in
The Reluctant Fundamentalist, taking the reader on a journey across both age
and class – from young to old and from poor to rich, with themes of love,
family, and fatherhood along the way.

Calling the act of writing a collaborative process between
writer and reader, Hamid said the idea for framing the novel as a self-help
style book came the idea that while fiction is meant for the reader, authors at
times do it for themselves too, as a way of self-help.

“Clearly some need is being met by this [for the author], but
even as a reader, the transportation to another place and the ability to be in
the presence of someone else but completely by myself is a form of self-help,”
he said. “I felt it was the most honest way to tell this story.”

Hamid also carries on the lack of character names from The
Reluctant Fundamentalist with no name given to the place, the protagonist, or
other characters like his love interest, called “pretty girl” all throughout
the book.

Likening names to brands, Hamid said he wanted the novel to be
free from the connotations that come from certain names of cities or people.

“Stripping away
the names became a way for me to see things for myself, and to show it is
possible to look for the universal in places that are thought of as
peripheral,” he said.

And while exciting thing seems to be happening in the
Pakistani literature circle – Hamid just returned from the fourth annual
Karachi Literature Festival – he sees it more as something exciting happening
among Pakistani readers.

“Young people growing up in Pakistan are looking for
alternative ways of thinking about things,” he said, noting music, fiction and
art as some vehicles. “They’re thinking about Pakistani society and what it
should be like, what they should be like.”

In addition to his book release, the film adaptation of The
Reluctant Fundamentalist is scheduled to come out in May, for which Hamid
co-wrote the script. The process taught him how different the book versus film
format is – a contrast he discusses in the novel as part of its plot.

But what he really appreciated about the film-making process
was seeing a team of 200 people work together to create art – notably, a
diverse group from India, Pakistan and England.

Because after all, the idea of self-help is really an oxymoron, as
Hamid points out in the beginning of his book.

“You read a self-help book so someone who isn’t yourself can help
you, that someone being the author. This is true of the whole self-help genre …
None of the foregoing means self-help books are useless. On the contrary, they
can be useful indeed. But it does mean that the idea of self in the land of
self-help is a slippery one. And slippery can be good.”

And that’s exactly what a crowd of about 75 people did Monday
evening in an event put on by the
Asia Society in New York City, introducing Hamid’s new book.

The author of Moth Smoke and international bestseller The
Reluctant Fundamentalist joined fellow author Suketu Mehta for a conversation
on his writing style, identity in fiction and his part in the buzzing Pakistani
literary scene.

Getting Rich is Hamid’s “speedy third novel” in the works
for the last six years (in comparison to the seven years each spent on his
previous two). The novel carries on the second-person narrative Hamid used in
The Reluctant Fundamentalist, taking the reader on a journey across both age
and class – from young to old and from poor to rich, with themes of love,
family, and fatherhood along the way.

Calling the act of writing a collaborative process between
writer and reader, Hamid said the idea for framing the novel as a self-help
style book came the idea that while fiction is meant for the reader, authors at
times do it for themselves too, as a way of self-help.

“Clearly some need is being met by this [for the author], but
even as a reader, the transportation to another place and the ability to be in
the presence of someone else but completely by myself is a form of self-help,”
he said. “I felt it was the most honest way to tell this story.”

Hamid also carries on the lack of character names from The
Reluctant Fundamentalist with no name given to the place, the protagonist, or
other characters like his love interest, called “pretty girl” all throughout
the book.

Likening names to brands, Hamid said he wanted the novel to be
free from the connotations that come from certain names of cities or people.

“Stripping away
the names became a way for me to see things for myself, and to show it is
possible to look for the universal in places that are thought of as
peripheral,” he said.

And while exciting thing seems to be happening in the
Pakistani literature circle – Hamid just returned from the fourth annual
Karachi Literature Festival – he sees it more as something exciting happening
among Pakistani readers.

“Young people growing up in Pakistan are looking for
alternative ways of thinking about things,” he said, noting music, fiction and
art as some vehicles. “They’re thinking about Pakistani society and what it
should be like, what they should be like.”

In addition to his book release, the film adaptation of The
Reluctant Fundamentalist is scheduled to come out in May, for which Hamid
co-wrote the script. The process taught him how different the book versus film
format is – a contrast he discusses in the novel as part of its plot.

But what he really appreciated about the film-making process
was seeing a team of 200 people work together to create art – notably, a
diverse group from India, Pakistan and England.

Because after all, the idea of self-help is really an oxymoron, as
Hamid points out in the beginning of his book.

“You read a self-help book so someone who isn’t yourself can help
you, that someone being the author. This is true of the whole self-help genre …
None of the foregoing means self-help books are useless. On the contrary, they
can be useful indeed. But it does mean that the idea of self in the land of
self-help is a slippery one. And slippery can be good.”